Baby Cards

Two of my friends recently celebrated the arrival of their baby boys! The blue papers in my Counterfeit Kit were perfect for creating boy cards. I used the Cricut Sugar and Spice cartridge (which yes, is the girl cart), but I changed the color of the stork from pink to blue. The white ribbon and orange scraps were an add on to the kit. Sweet and simple!

My Scrap Room

We moved into our house a year ago and I was very lucky to be able to convert one of our bedrooms into my personal craft retreat. It is a continuing work in progress as the space is an awkward shape and I am still trying to figure out how to best organize all of my stuff.

My favorite part of the room is that it is at the front of the house and gets tons of sunlight so it keeps the room bright and toasty. Here is a view from the doorway:

I kept the mess on the floor for the picture because it shows off my scrapping work style which is to sit on the ground surrounded by supplies.The curtains are from Target and my mom was nice enough to hem them and make matching pillows for the chairs with the left over fabric.

Here is the technology work station with my Cricut, laptop and printer.

Here is a view of the main desk. It is the Ikea Expedit desk which I absolutely love and wish I had one of these bookcases in every room in the house.

The desk is not normally this clean. However, I am taking The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide with May Flaum at Big Picture starting in a few weeks and I got a head start on pulling my supplies together and cleaning up. I just installed the Ikea Bygel rails on the side of the desk and filled them with supplies for class.

And the last part of my room, and certainly the least, is the super small closet that I haven't quite figured out what to do with. Originally there was just the one shelf on the top, but I added two more for additional storage.

And there you have it! I think if I could have my dream space it would look something like this:

Here's what I love:
1. The mix of blues & whites
2. The window seat. I love window seats and would like to figure out how to install one.
3. Oversized chairs for relaxing and reading breaks
4. A huge counter that goes on forever. I think if I had more counter space to spread out, I wouldn't need to sit on the floor
5. Those cabinets! I would love custom cabinets to get everything out of the plastic bins and into nice shelving.
6. An area to display my favorite work

Valentine's Day Tag

This month's Scrapbook Etc magazine had a really cute tag that I decided to turn into a card. Here is their tag: 

And here is my card:

I tried something new with my Cuttlebug and actually inked it first and then put the tag in to run it through the machine. I like the way it turned out and will be trying this technique again in the future.

Counterfeit Kit: Christmas Layout & Card

I have been so inspired this month and am just glad that I've been able to spend most of the long holiday weekend locked away in my scrap room. Here is a double page layout I put together using my Christmas Explosion kit and a sketch from the Double Take class I took last year at Big Picture.

Full Page Layouts: 

 Page 1:

Page 2:

I was also able to throw together a birthday card for a co-worker. This is the first time I have tried to make my own rosettes using the Martha Stewart scoreboard. This one had a few mistakes that I just hot glued together so you can't exactly tell, but I think I need some more practice! The lighting is off, but the rosette is made from the light blue pattern paper in my One Calm Day kit. The border paper is a solid light grey.

Counterfeit Kit: Sketch Challenge

The first Counterfeit Kit challenge of 2012 was to play along with the Creative Scrappers sketch         # 189.

I thought this would be perfect to use with my Christmas Explosion kit! Lots of patterned paper options.

The plaid paper was one of my favorites in my kit and it actually was a close match to the shirt in the photo. The small striped paper also played off the pattern in the chair. The snow globe and gift stickers are from K&Company. About the photo - we got my brother a custom Fathead of his favorite NFL referee -it is an inside joke with our family. This photo captures his complete surprise!

January Counterfeit Kit

And we're back! After taking the month of December off, Counterfeit Kit returns in January with not 1, but 5 potential kits to choose from. All of the kits are from Cocoa Daisy. I knew immediately that I wanted to tackle the Christmas kit. I'm still in the Christmas spirit and I've got a lot of fun photos from this holiday season.

Here is a picture of the Coca Daisy Merry and Bright kit:

 

Here is a picture of my kit which I am calling "Christmas Explosion": 

 I was also inspired by the Sunshine and Snowflakes kit:

 Here is my kit which I am calling "One Calm Day":

 Now I've got to go catch up on the tutorials and challenges!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It is such a strange feeling to know that we did not get any pictures of our Christmas lights in the snow, but somehow we did get our Halloween decorations covered in it! The Halloween snow was oddly enough the only white stuff we have seen so far. Last year at this time, we were digging out from blizzard 1 of 2.

Since I don't have to spend my time shoveling, I've gotten a good start on my holiday thank you cards

I even hit up the Michaels' post Christmas clearance sale. I was looking for some major bargains and found lots of 70% off treats.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but this year I do have one scrap goal in mind. Organize my scrap room. I've had my own space for a year now and have not been able to get it the way I want it. Most often I find that I am sitting on the floor to scrap - which I rather enjoy - so I'm trying to set up a system where my most used products on the bottom shelves and easy to reach.

My prediction for 2012 looks something like the t-shirt my husband got me from Two Chicks Designs: